Manuski means humanism in Marathi. A term used by Dr B.R.Ambedkar, a great humanist of India. This blog want stimulating debate without any prejudices of caste, religion and nationalism. It is about humanism and human rights. All freethinkers are welcome to contribute and participate in stimulating debates.

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Republic of Dominants

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

A student from Arunachal Pradesh was lynched to death in the
heart of South Delhi after an altercation with a shop owner who ‘joked’ at the
hair style of the boy Nido, son of an MLA and student in a college here. The
boy lost his life as he got beaten up by the shop owner and his friends who
extracted rupees ten thousand too from the boy for ‘breaking’ their glass in
the shop. There is outrage all over the country. Political parties have
condemned the incident and as usual blamed Delhi police for its inept handling
of the situation.

This is not the first incident of racial violence against the
people from North East and Delhi is not the only state where such incidents are
happening and despite all the media coverage and importance being given to the
incident, this would not be the last of its kind as prejudices in our minds
against those who do not look like us and have same kind of ‘characteristics’
are rampant. Frankly speaking, it is not just a law and order issue, it reflect
the deep-rooted prejudices in our mind and need a long term solution.

There are two responses to the issue. One from the political
angle which considers that this incident may create unrest in North east and
alienate the people further particularly states like Arunachal Pradesh which
are always claimed as ‘disputed’ territory by China. The others feel that it
give leverage to Christian missionaries in their effort to ‘convert’ people as
many of them have been blaming the church for their persistent engagement in
proselytization process in these states. Many want a very patronizing attitude
like they are our ‘poor’ cousins, living in forest, isolated regions and hence
need to be ‘helped’ in the name of ‘national integration’.

For a ‘profit maker’ in Delhi these issues are not of
importance as he sees them as helpless people who need residence in Delhi and
hence force them to his terms and conditions. The middlemen extract money from
them and the women from the north east are considered ‘available’ all the time
due to their life style. It is not that these issues are not known to people in
the North East. Many of them actually feel that these young boys and girls have
to be a little careful as their security is of paramount concern for the families
and their near dear ones. The question is how these issues are addressed by
authorities.

If you ask people as what is the problem with the North
Eastern boys and girls living in our metros and pet come the answer they must
be ‘integrated’ in our mainstream. It needs to be answered as what is the
‘mainstream’ which we want to convert the friends from the north east. The
police authorities in Delhi have offered some ‘guidelines’ in the form of a booklet for the students and
visitors from North East as ‘security’ tips . ‘The booklet advises girls
from the region to avoid wearing any “revealing dress” and has suggestions
about cooking “smelly” food without creating a “ruckus” in the neighborhood.

It is
interesting that the booklet has been written by a senior police official of
Delhi police hailing from North East. It has been widely condemned that the
police is trying to ‘integrate’ people at the cost of their culture and life
style. The students, visitors and activists have condemned these guidelines and
questioned their motivation. However, it is important to understand that these
guidelines reflect our mindset and not merely policing and administration.

The other day,
we heard Delhi’s law minister speaking about the Ugandan girls in Khirki
village during their illegal raid that ‘these’ are not people like ‘us’. They
are engaged in ‘prostitution’ and drug peddling said the minister. It is
evident that the ‘cultural’ dissent is being seen in those who we feel ‘inferior’
to us. The fact is that despite our jargons and loud talks, Indians rarely
mixed up with the people of African origins and we would definitely love to be
in the company of ‘superior’ American and Europeans. Have we imagined as what
would have been the repercussions of a ‘raid’ if the people were not from
Uganda and Nigeria but from America or Europe?

What is
visible here is a deep rooted prejudice against those who have a different
culture than us where women too enjoy equal status and can go out without a
male escort, where girls and boys are like friend, where violence against women
is least and women are in fact leader in
their own and visible in the social culture lives. These are our northeastern
states where we can find a much egalitarian and gendered society exists unlike
most metros and rest of the country where feudal values are rampant.

Actually, India is a republic of dominant where democracy
provides stamp of approval to majoritarian thinking pattern and their deeds and
this makes India highly dangerous. Shockingly it is a society which is not
ready to accept even minor changes that threaten the status quo and violent
anti Mandal protests in 1990 are example of how we look towards affirmative
action for the most marginalized communities. The real meaning of democracy
means an equitable and liberal society where people live in mutual respect and
have sound understanding of rights of each other. It also means ensuring participation
of all the segments in power and feel of security and safety in the minds of
the most marginalized one. Unfortunately, for Indian democracy of the dominant
has become a tool of the power elite to coopt the minorities into their
cultural practices and that is why a Shahrukh Khan, Salman, Saif or Aamir are
popular when they adopt the ‘dominant’ cultural values and represent their
values not in practice but more in symbol to give a justification to the idea
of ‘’secularism’.

The friends of North-East are good as long as they take the
jokes and jibes on them ‘sheepishly’ and do not respond to all those nasty
remarks which they often face. The girls of north east are considered as
‘cheap’ and ‘available’ just because they do not cover themselves from head to
toe and move around in confidence. How
can a man who has seen his mother, grand-mother, sister, wife in purdah all the
time accept other women without that? It comes in their mind that these women
are easily available and they can do whatever they wish to including commenting
and even staring at them awkwardly. The
violence starts when the move is rejected by the person and hence you can hear
the comments like Chinky and so on.

It is not that the slur is reserved for the North Eastern
people only. If you see contempt of people looking different then who better
than people of Uttarakhand and Himachal know it when they are referred
contemptuously as ‘Pahadi’. I was
shocked to hear from a receptionist in Warangal, Andhra Pradesh last year,
asking me to show my passport to him. He never believed me when I said, I came
from Delhi. My own experiences are much better in Nepal, Thailand and even far
away countries like Bolivia and Guatemala where people felt, I am one among
them and not really from India.

However, it is not as simple as misunderstanding
of people and their identities. It is much bigger. Most of the people who hail
from hills are actually much more liberated in their outlook and culture. Even
when there may not be a matrilineal system, I would say, it is on people to
record that men-women relationships in these regions are much liberal and far
better than to say the people living in plain regions. One of the reasons for
that is the distinctive life style, smaller land holdings and peaceful nature
of the hill people.

Last few years we have seen the protests in Delhi on so many
issues mostly related to people of ‘Delhi’. They were most in the nature of
Delhi’s regional aspirations though they impacted ‘India’. Delhi witness
protest and dharanas from the people who are not from Delhi. They shot from ‘Delhi’but
neither media nor ‘people’ of Delhi have
time for them. It look that the ‘poorest’ and most marginalized people of India
live in ‘Delhi’, betrayed by all and now there was a Rambo going to ‘liberate’
them. Such protests were great but inherently biased and highly nationalistic.
They shouted slogan against the federal government, called parliamentarians thieves,
mocked at them and other legislatures and discredited all the institutions of
democracy that we have built so far so laboriously. The protestors did not
follow any rule. Most of them had anti Dalit-anti Muslim biases and their India
confined to their own issues. All other Indians who do not agree with their
view point needed to be demolished or conquered. They gave example of ‘direct’ democracy. The
language was abusing, vulgar and yet police did nothing. The slogan was like
‘dilli police’ was with them insidiously. No action was taken against them. It
was an unruly mob mocking at every institution of democracy but do we have the
same facility for the people in Chhattishgarh and Jharkhand. Can the tribal of
Odisha and other central Indian state have the same luxury to protest against
the police brutality in their states? Can the Muslims of Gujarat, Mujaffarnagar
and other parts of India who have been falsely implicated in various cases of
terror, do an indefinite Dharana at Jantar Mantar or Ramlila ground? Will the
police with them be so friendly if they plan to do so?

It means it is a democracy of dominant where the opinion of
the dominant matter the most and we all care for that. The minority opinion
does not matter for them. The entire Indian government apparatus is shaken up
when an Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejriwal sits on Dharna but non bothers when a
woman from Manipur from Sharmila has been on hunger strike for the past 10
years against AFSPA but without any serious effort by the state to address the
issues she raised. The armed forces are fighting war in Kashmir, in North East,
in Central India and at many places fighting against our own people. At most of
the places the demands of the people are political in nature, for more autonomy
and yet the reaction of the state is violent and brutal.

The democracy of dominant reflects clearly in the non-action
of the state in major cases of violence against minorities or marginalized.
Whether it is the violence against Sikhs in 1984 or violence against Muslims in
1993 or Maliana, Meerut, Bhagalpur or Gujarat, the victims have rarely got
justice. Contrary to this, such violence and polarization has always helped the
dominant politically. Gujarat 2002 ensured that Modi remain powerful in
Gujarat. Shiv Sena and MNS have been
engaged in goondaism in Maharastra and became more powerful after the Babari
demolition in 1992 and yet nothing happened to them. Rajiv’s Congress got huge
mandate on the killings of Sikh and I called it a communal mandate based on
hatred against Sikh community. Nothing happened to anyone. The violence against
Dalits and marginalized are on the rise and Haryana is a case example but since
those who are perpetrating it are Jats, the powerful community of Haryana state
hence nothing happened. Mujaffarnagar is the same case example that violence
happened and people were glorified and yet no action has been taken and
everybody knew why? The High Court of Patna finds no proof of involvement of
Ranvir Sena in the Lakshmanpur Bathe case and each of the accused is released
honorably. Is it not the irony that even after 60 years of our independence we
are still finding such prejudices at every level in our ‘structure’?

The crime against minorities and marginalized have a tendency
of being seen as ‘dissent’ and ‘threat’ to dominant culture and in the dominant
political and social discourse it needs to be justified when crushed by
vigilant mob of the dominant. The mob mindset of the dominant actually takes
control of the ‘law’ in the name of societal and cultural issues. That is why
we have Khap Panchayats where anybody disagreeing to a certain view point is
seen as a challenge to society and hence must be eliminated. It became more so
in case of people whose caste and colors are considered to be inferior. The
‘inferior’ have to be coopted in the popular belief system yet they cannot
claim equal rights. Hence, a good Muslim would be those who respect ‘cow’ and
the holy text books of Hindus but the same prescription is not meant for a
Hindu. A good northeastern person is the one who can speak in Hindi, appreciate
our ‘great culture’, become vegetarian and strictly follow the ‘rules’ dictated
by the ‘dominant’. When you take a flight for Ahmedabad, you won’t get non
vegetarian food as we have to respect the sentiments of ‘dominant’, in this
case Gujaratis. I mean, the weak, the minorities, marginalized have to respect
the sentiments of the ‘powerful’ and yet not claim equality.

Hence, Nido’s death does only reflect one thing clearly. It
is that the violence perpetuated by the shopkeepers was inherently racial in
nature. It is a dominant discourse that these people are not ‘like’ us. The
normal description of the ‘people with difference’ is that they are meat
eaters, drink, dance and engage in sex as if all this is a crime according to
Indian penal code and all these ‘dominant’ do not have access to this. The raid
by Somnath Bharati, the law minister of Delhi in the houses of Ugandan
nationals living in Delhi is a case point. How the Minister was telling that
‘these’ people are not like us and engaged in a ‘prostitution’ racket. If
Somnath Bharati has guts to close all this than he must visit GB Road and
cleanse there first, rehabilitate the women there who are definitely not living
there out of their choice but seer compulsion. Can he do it? Can Indian really call
a spade a spade? Then Bharati has to condemn the Devdasi system which is
prostitution sanctified by the ‘Gods’ and Hindu way of life. But then nothing
happened to that. Devdasi is still a system and we have not been able to
eliminate it fully as the forces behind promotion of it are dominant one.

Indian democracy will move towards anarchy as the dominant
want it. Why Kejriwal, Arnab Goswami and Narendra Modi are liked by the urban
middle classes? It is simple because they shout loud, they abuse and they mock
at others who do not seem to be like them. It fetches better results. The
dominants are now afraid of the domination of the hitherto marginalized
sections of society. As the democratic space opens up for more marginalized and
their leader take control of the system, the dominant will regroup under
different banners. They will use politics, religion and morality to remain in
power and undo the agenda of social justice. With media and corporate power in
hand, the dominant make a full-fledged assault on the system through various
means. It will make false and lofty promises to people and discredit the
current system. It does not have a credible alternative yet people suffering
from the institutional inefficiency rush to them in search of alternative and
feel betrayed. The other way is through lies and deceits being spread by
popular media in the hope that repeating lies and deceit will make them truth.

It is an attempt to codify the society and create anarchy so
that forces of social justice and marginalized are further marginalized. It
will create new issues so that the state does not have time to address the real
issues. How is any government going to address the issues of North East,
Kerala, Telangana, Kashmir, Dalits, Muslims, terrorism if India’s main problem
remains Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. Since they represented dominant view
point all kind of forces supported them and government was favorable to them
but at the end of the day, a country like India will need to provide space for
all. Democracy cannot become truly republican unless each marginalized section
of society including minorities do not have fair space, representation in power
structure, political parties and in the government. Those who are trying to
side track these wider issues under their one point programme are actually
engaged in the politics of dominant which is afraid of the growth of the
marginalized sections of society and a demand for more diversity and more
representation from diverse sections of our people. Democracy must demolish
this politics of Khap Panchayat or Ramleela Maidan which is nothing but
political discourses of dominant to destroy the real and genuine voices of the
most marginalized communities. A successful democracy will only pave the way
for them and bring their issues to the main political agenda.

Each political leader of today who matters in India represents
one particular community in the state which is dominant whether numerically or
in muscle power. And we have seen the results as they will justify everything
in the name of ‘democracy’. The violence against the most marginalized continued
with ostensible state support. State actually here becomes the voices dominant
castes. It is important now to democratize our social system otherwise the
whole edifice of democracy will be demolished by such ideas which are actually anti-democratic
in nature.

Nido became victim of politics of dominance and so were
thousands of Sikhs and Muslims who were butchered in Delhi and Gujarat. Same
dominant kept quiet when Gandhi was killed in 1948 and Rajiv was killed in 1991
but the dominant became violent when Indira Gandhi was killed in 1984.
Political scientists and analyst must focus on this political discourse and
attempt should be made to expose this politics of the dominant so that
democracy become vibrant enjoyed by all. Violence against minorities and
marginalized is actually not the outcome of politics of this political party or
that but the politics and control of the dominant communities who control all
the parties as well as governance system too.

Followers

About Me

Learning through working. Working at the grassroots made me realise the big difference between those who claim to represent communities as well as the communities themselves. Common man is crushed between the ambitions of various individuals to lead and dominate. The dominant and high numbered communities will always dominate our discourse and the most marginalised are losing in this entire discourse. That is the reason why Mushahar remain at the marginalised and the issue of manual scavenging still not on our top agenda and to eliminate that the community has to decide its own organisations..

I am devoted to freedom of ideas and expression. I personally feel that we in the subcontinent want to dominate and control our discourse and each one of is a ultra nationalist in terms of their caste and community. Nationalism is not just national and political but it is equally in term of religion and caste. I feel each kind of nationalism is a dominant discourse which deny the dissenter a right to speak.

At the end, we all want to listen the truth suitable to us.. we have become expertised in the art of speaking truth of convenience. As long as that remain hall mark of our society and we speak to already converts, this society will remain stagnant, it will always try to control our ideas and choices. We need to oppose any such perception, ideas that want to control our mind and victimise us.

To understand India further, I feel, it is good to do foot walk, ( Padyatras) to various parts of the country. I have so far done it thrice covering nearly 1500-2000 kilometers. It is always interesting to see how people are coping their issues and what is the reason of their exploitation.